Archive for April, 2013|Monthly archive page

An automaton is a self-operating robot, or it is at times referred to as an android. It might appear to have thoughts of its own but in reality all of its cognition is pre-programmed and it follows rigid rules preventing itself from questioning these pre-programmed rules.

On Earth, raw material for creating such a machine is available in innumerable quantity, in the form of newly born human-beings. In fact, the whole economic system adopted globally is very much driven by and dependent on this quantity of raw material. Unbridled self-replication followed by mindless consumption props up the predominantly capitalistic economic practices, which under scrutiny turns out to be just a giant global Ponzi scheme, to demarcate the rich & privileged, from the poor & downtrodden.

Some automatons do turn out to be exceptional critical-thinkers and trounce this man-made facade of economic fallacy, thus enriching themselves, for e.g the entrepreneurs who create truly beneficial tools for daily use by the automatons, or the occasional winner of Who wants to be a millionaire? But what is lost in this noise, is the fact that plutocrats remain at the top of our economic ladder, owning a vastly disproportional amount of the world’s wealth.

“The richest 300 have the same wealth as the poorest 3 billion!”

The automatons are falsely taught to toil, or work, or sell their time to an employer, in order to earn a living. This is nothing new. In pre-industrial societies, slaves and their labour were economically extremely important. Following reforms brought about by a renaissance concerning basic human rights, automatons have been inculcated to sell themselves, as slaves to modern slave-masters in the garb of corporations. The usual objective of such an automaton is to imbibe a need for consumption in fellow automatons. Thus the vicious cycle is maintained ad infinitum.

It has been almost 3 and a half years since James Cameron’s Avatar was released worldwide. Cinema is a medium that has the widest reach in our modern world, and this particular movie had a strong environmental message proclaiming that we only have one planet to sustain ourselves. Cinema is also tragically the medium through which automatons worldwide are lulled into passivity when they should be clamouring for realization of human rights & cosmic research and exploration. After Avatar, and countless initiatives by environmental organisations worldwide, the automatons continue to buy more than 2 cars per house, continue to consume obliviously.

When you consider the fact that there have been numerous calls for a revolution, or a paradigm shift, and yet no change seems to be in sight for the near future, to save our only habitable environment, the Wachowskis got it right about the automatons in their 1999 masterpiece, The Matrix.

“Many of them are so inert, so hopelessly dependent on the system, that they will fight to protect it.”

Indian populist culture is familiar with, and pays ceaseless, cosmetic tribute to contemporary Khan Dynasties epitomized by Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan & of course Aamir Khan. But what the Indian diaspora fails to recognize is the fact that Khan Dynasties not only rule their movie industry, but their fragile political infrastructure is led by one of the most powerful Khan dynasties on the planet.

The Nehru-Khan Dynasty.

Jawaharlal Nehru was an English aristocrat first, and an Indian freedom fighter second, who happened to take over Indian politics in its nascent state. He was a true statesman, both articulate and charismatic. His daughter was a whole another matter. She was a true authoritarian, chiding and scolding, even punishing state leaders for failure to comply with her dictatorship.

Before she rose to her seat of power, Indira Nehru, as was her maiden name, married Feroze Khan. The surname of Feroze Khan’s Parsi mother was Gandhy, but even then she still hadn’t attained the much coveted political surname. Since you’re reading this, you might as well get to know Maimuna Begum! Her marriage was not well-received by her father, which prompted M.K Gandhi, to mediate the issue. He adopted Feroze Khan, thus gifting him and future generations of Indira’s family, the holy grail of Gandhian nomenclature.

Thus finally we arrive at the year 2013 A.D., with Antonia Maino , aka Sonia Khan, aka Sonia Gandhi reigning over the Indian sub-continent. If we follow the true family nomenclature, we have Rahul Khan, who is touted as successor to the Nehru-Khan Dynasty.

Truth is stranger than fiction…only until you grow measurably familiar with it.